WSBA President Patrick Palace with Attorney General Bob Ferguson.
It was a good week last week, and included celebrating my son Winston’s birthday. He is now a teen.
Wednesday I had the opportunity to meet briefly with our Attorney General Bob Ferguson. We discussed how the WSBA and the AGs office could partner together to bring greater value and support to the lives of government lawyers. It was a good opening discussion. I look forward to continuing the conversation over the coming months.
Thursday I continued the theme and met with the Board of the Government Lawyers Bar Association (GLBA). We had a robust discussion about what government lawyers need from the WSBA. This was a productive and very useful meeting. Sue Strachan, who recently moved into a new role as Legal Community Outreach Specialist accompanied me to the meeting and we left with a solid understanding of the GLBA’s needs and ideas how the WSBA can be of greater service to our government lawyers. You can learn more about the GLBA on their website.
Friday Paula Littlewood and I attended the Board of Judicial Administration (BJA) meeting. BJA is beginning the process of improving its organization, much as the WSBA undertook three years ago. BJA’s Committee Unification Workgroup’s charge is to “make recommendations to reduce the confusion and duplication of effort associated with the myriad of committees, boards and commissions undertaking work within the judicial branch of Washington.” The workgroup has documented some 214 different committees run by the courts and made recommendations. It seems they too are beginning to feel, as we once did, that they are a mile wide and an inch deep. We have offered to provide them assistance with this process.
That afternoon I caught a plane to San Francisco to continue learning about the Berkeley Initiative for Mindfulness and the Law. Great program.
With regard to emerging issues, you should be aware that the Supreme Court did not adopt the proposed Family Law Civil Rules that were recommended by the WSBA’s Local Rules Task Force and BOG. This is a disappointment for family lawyers who worked very hard to bring these rules to reality. I invite you to reach out to family lawyers and make them aware that the WSBA supported these rules, that we too are disappointed and that we will continue to support the needs of family lawyers across the state. The FLCRs can be found here. I will keep you posted where we go from here after we learn more from the Court.
For quicker updates, follow along with me as events happen on Twitter @Palacelaw or @wastatebar.
Hope you all had a great week. Namaste.
Patrick Palace. Patrick opened Palace Law Offices in 1995, a firm that emphasizes workers’ compensation, civil rights, and personal injury matters. Palace is President of the WSBA Board of Governors. He will assume the WSBA presidency in September 2013.
Palace served on the WSBA Board of Governors for the Sixth District from 2008–2011. He was also the WSBA treasurer from 2010–2011. Prior to serving as WSBA governor, he was president of the WSBA Young Lawyers Division (1999–2000) and served on the Public Legal Education Workgroup Task Force and the WSBA President’s Advisory Committee, which was created to promote judicial independence.
He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington in International Business and his law degree from Loyola University of Chicago School of Law.
